This blog is a result of the heavy censoring of the media by the military dictatorship regime.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Progress with Fiji?:Nelson Mail Editorial

NELSON (The Nelson Mail/Pacific Media Watch): Perhaps President Barack Obama means it when he promotes war as a means to peace.

Perhaps Commodore Frank Bainimarama means it when he declares that the ultimate goal of his military dictatorship is democracy. Both positions seem, on the surface, to be equally self-contradictory. Time will tell whether reality matches declared intent.

With what is left of New Zealand's relationship with Fiji on the brinkof collapse, our government's attempt to wind back the tension by a quarter turn is appropriate. However, that does not suggest that this country's position on the illegal Fijian regime should change, or even that it might. As problematic as the election by which the previous Fijian government assumed power might have been – especially the inadequate rolls on which it was based – and as potentially damaging as some of the deposed Qarase government's decisions seemed, it did have far greater legitimacy than the current dictatorship.

The commodore might feel he is misunderstood by the Western world, and perhaps more heed could be taken of the underlying issues which he points to in attempting to justify his coup. However, his actions since 2006 have been indistinguishable from those of any other common or garden variety dictator. He has sacked judges for simply attempting to do their job. He has imposed toxic demands on the media and suppressed opposition, sometimes brutally. He has given power to cronies and sycophants while proving powerless to stop his country's economy from plummeting.

On his watch, Fiji has become an international no-go-zone, and his people have suffered. His attempts to paint New Zealand and Australia as big brother bullies are risible, given his own power-retaining methods. He has made international promises – including to hold an election by early this year – and just as easily reneged. He now claims his country won't be ready to go to the polls until 2014. Who'd have guessed drawing up new rolls for a nation of less than one million would prove so difficult?

9 comments:

It's just not rocket science !It's a well known fact that the " Commander " is simply not the one who is in Command !Those who have seen fit to use the threat of arrest of Frank Bainimarama to their own advantage, are.As time goes by and support from the Military's own Soldiers begins to falter, more desperate efforts will be made by those same " shadowy figures " that Andrew Hughes referred to, in their scramble to save their own necks.Like rats on a sinking ship, we will begin to see them abandon ship, slowly eating away at whatever it will take to secure their own personal freedom, while dopey Frank Bainimarama continues to cling to the hope that he can turn it back to port in time to save a lost cause !What a pathetic bunch of low life petty criminals they all are and one wonders for just how many years have they been in the background, slowly working their trade of theft and deception on the still unsuspecting child like, gullible and naive Fijian public.The use of culture and various other facets of Fijian Society, in the past have served these same people very well.But it is the dawning of a new age now and it's time perhaps for a new generation of Politicians to take over Fijian Society as the previous has clearly failed over the past 39 years of Fiji's Independence.It's also time for Fijians to come out from the dark ages and embrace a new modern Fiji, by never allowing it's man made cultural restrictions to play a part in their Political lives as, like oil and water, they just don't mix.Culture is just another word for control !

Mark Manning and Na Dina ought to get together and live happily ever after. The frustrated Sydney male nurse and the aging bread magnate of Lami are just made for each other. Na Dina, if you think Manning's piece is "well written", then you're even more dangerously ignorant than I feared. Really, what hope do we have of restoring democracy when its principal crusaders are bordering on the certifiable? God help us all.

Anon from Bulamakanka Bugle .... dear boy what is wrong with the Nelson Mail ?

It all just goes to show that Baini-ku-ku's sinister regime's actions are not taking place in a vacuum and unoticed ... indeed people all over the world , even in the tiniest valleys of Bulamakanka can see him and coup supporters in all their fiendishly naked depravity.

What utter crap, discombobulated. That editorial in the Nelson Mail also appeared in other NZ provincial newspapers like the Southland Times. They're all owed by the Fairfax Media group so the editorial was written at a central location and then distributed to its various outlets. So, far from being a cry for democracy from the people of Nelson, as you portray it, it's actually an expression of corporate opinion imposed from above. So much for media diversity. It's all about emasculating local opinion by replacing local journalists with an editorial feed from Wellington. Fairfax Media also happens to be the home of Michael Field, the rabid Bainimarama hater, so no prizes for guessing where this particular editorial may have been generated.

[Anon. January 16, 2010 2:22am]...sure got you there huh!! This is a free speech zone so you say your piece and we say ours. Stop getting personal, anyway, this ain't Boss from Hot Bread Lami!! Its one of her team, take it or lump it.

Woilei Anon at 8 am ... keep your hat on dear boy ... my question is, so if you knew that your mate Field batted this into cyberspace for Fairfax, why didnt you vent at the beginning of your anon comments .. instead of venting another 5 lines of considered comment ????

And speaking of corporate opinion imposed from above, what do you call the 'corporate' opinion aka 'propoganda' imposed from above (at the military regime's scheming & plotting gestapo HQ) to all the media outlets now controlled by the'o-sobo-say-something-nice' censors in Fiji ?

And tell me one more thing dear boy ....(in keeping with your version of the meaning of words) is the propoganda that is distributed daily by the military media cell, your regime's version of 'media diversity'?